The Spanish Footballers' Association (AFE) has announced legal action against LaLiga after the latter refused to form the negotiation table for the new collective bargaining agreement. AFE, backed by 93% of the votes in the union elections, demands its right to negotiate exclusively. LaLiga, however, seeks to include a minority union, which delays improvements in labor rights and player conditions. This conflict directly affects football workers, who see key agreements blocked.
VAR and data management: tools for labor transparency ⚽
Technology in football, such as VAR or performance analysis platforms, allows for the collection of objective data on players' physical effort and working conditions. These systems could be applied to audit compliance with the collective bargaining agreement, such as rest schedules or match loads. However, the lack of a negotiating framework prevents using these tools to guarantee rights. While LaLiga gets tangled in union disputes, the data that could protect footballers remains practically useless.
LaLiga prefers to negotiate with the invisible friend union 🎭
It turns out that LaLiga does not want to sit down with the union that won by a landslide, but with another that barely gets any votes. It's like if at school, to decide the recess menu, the principal ignored the class representative and asked the kid who always orders broccoli. The excuse is to seek representativeness, but it seems more like an attempt to drag out the meeting until everyone gets tired. Meanwhile, the players wait for improvements with the patience of a goalkeeper watching a goal being reviewed on VAR.